Developers' excesses inexcusable, says Nama chairman

THE “EXCESSIVE borrowings” and “ostentatious lifestyles” of some developers were inexcusable and “now certainly look offensive”, chairman of the National Asset Management Agency Frank Daly has said in an interview with RTÉ Radio 1.

Mr Daly told RTÉ interviewer Marian Finucane that he understood why there was public anger with some of the 850 developers whose loans have been transferred to the agency, but that not all of those developers had participated in the “awful excesses” of the property bubble.

“I certainly understand the anger that is out there in relation to some of those developers and what they did and the consequences for the country. To a certain extent, though, I would have to say the excesses of the few have tarnished all of them with the same brush,” he said.

Mr Daly noted that Nama received the most positive commentary whenever the agency appointed a receiver to a developer’s company, but that he did not agree with this tendency. “When we have to bring someone down, I regard it almost as a failure, rather than a success,” he said.

Nama cost a total of €46 million to run in its first 10 months of operation last year, with some €13 million paid in fees to financial, legal and property advisers. “Nama is as lean as it can possibly be,” Mr Daly said.

Some €5 million was paid for financial advice and consultancy last year, with a further €5 million paid in property portfolio management fees. An additional €3 million was spent on legal fees.

The agency is due to publish its audited 2010 accounts in the coming weeks. Unaudited accounts were lodged with Minister for Finance Michael Noonan last month.

The Nama chairman admitted he didn’t anticipate the eventual scale of the agency’s work when he was first asked to take the job.

“I wouldn’t really have envisaged the scale of what I was getting into – I wouldn’t have envisaged the way I ended up dealing with banks and developers. That’s been a bit of an eye-opener.”